The Girl With the Scars
by carlee.nae
Summary: It's a couple of hours after the final battle and Harry finds a crying, scarred Lavender Brown. Not really knowing what he is doing, he decides to comfort her. Pre-relationship Harry/Lavender. One-shot.


**A/N: Hello! I am in quite a rush right now. This was written for the One Hour Challenge/The Hardest Challenge Ever on the HPFC forum. I have 11 minutes left to post this.** **We were given different levels to choose from, and I chose 1H, which is write 1000 words in one hour. I was given the pairing Harry/Lavender with the prompt 'fire'. This is what I came up with in about 50 minutes or so!**

**I actually quite like this one, but I don't really like the ending all that much... but please review! Constructive criticism is always appreciated!**

**Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything related to it.**

Harry stared into the common room fire. The flame was just a feeble flickering, a reflection of what he was feeling. After all the adrenalin during the final battle, he felt lifeless, not wanting to move or speak, simply just wanting to be alone. Everybody was still in the Great Hall where the dead and the injured were being treated, where friends and family were mourning their losses. Harry had initially wanted to be there with the Weasley's and Hermione to mourn the loss of Fred, but he knew he would feel out of place. This was something for just the family for now. He could see Fred later.

The Gryffindor common room looked untouched compared to the rest of the castle. Most of the battle had taken place at the lower levels of the castle. Nobody was stupid enough to corner themselves in the higher levels. There was still some evidence of something happening. The very couch that Harry was sitting in had a few tears and soot on it from passing curses. The tapestry covering the back wall was hanging by a thread, and a bit of the stone was missing from the wall. There was no further evidence that anything had happened in the room.

Harry laid back and stared at the high ceiling with a sigh. What was going to happen now? Voldemort was defeated. The wizarding world was saved, but what now? It felt like that his whole life was centred on one dark wizard, and now that he was gone... there was nothing else. He had Ginny, but he had a feeling that nothing was going to come from their relationship – they had simply been apart for too long, and too much had changed in that time.

So what else was there? There was no love, no family but the Weasley's. Everyone that had mattered to him died in the war - his parents, Sirius, Dumbledore and now Remus.

Remus and Tonks! Harry could feel his throat closing up, tears stinging his eyes. Was there anybody else there for the two of them? Andromeda was surely still at home taking care of baby Teddy, baby Teddy who would grow up with no father, just like he, himself, had. _I will make sure Teddy grows up with a father figure,_ Harry vowed. _I will be there for him every step of the way._

Standing up with a new found determination, Harry made his way down to the Great Hall, his plan to mourn for Remus and Tonks, then apparated to Andromeda's house to check on her and Teddy. The halls were empty, all the dead bodies being collected and the remaining Death Eaters taken away by aurors. The castle debris was scattered all over the place, but Harry tried to ignore it.

Harry was one corner away from the Great Hall when he heard it. Above the hushed voices coming from the Great Hall, he could hear a girl sobbing. Lavender Brown was sitting against the wall, her hands covering her face. A large amount of blood stained her school shirt, but Harry didn't know if it was another's or her own. If this had been anybody else, Harry was sure that he would have walked past solely wanting to get to Remus' and Tonks' bodies, but Lavender seemed so lonely and helpless.

"Lavender?" Harry called softly. "Are you okay?"

The girl looked up and Harry struggled to hold in a gasp. Her face was covered in scars, recently healed, and there was still a bit of dried blood. Her hair, tied in a ponytail, looks messy and was stuck together with sweat and blood. Her eyes were swollen and red from the crying. She looked absolutely dreadful and in pain, both mentally and physically.

"Does it look like I'm okay?" she croaked out. "The school gets taken over by Voldemort, I live the year in fear, and when you get hear and start the battle, I get mauled by a werewolf."

"Greyback..."

"Yes, Greyback. One of the healers did some work on me. Apparently I will be fine..."

Harry stood there awkwardly, not really knowing what to say. He was never any good at comforting people, and this was no exception. "I'm sorry, Lavender. I really am."

"I'm going to have these scars for the rest of my life!" She started sobbing into her hands again.

It was a few moments before Harry made a move. Pushing Remus and Tonks out of his mind for the moment, he sat down next to Lavender against the wall and placed a hand on her head awkwardly. "Lavender... I really don't know what to say. But I do know one thing... you shouldn't be ashamed of the scars."

Her shoulders shook harder and Harry had to struggle to hear what she said next. "I'm going to be u-u-ugly for the rest of my life. No one will want to be with me. No one wants to be with an ugly girl."

Harry held back a chuckle. Despite the horrid circumstances, he couldn't help but think that this was so typical of Lavender. To be worrying about what she _looked like_. "Lavender... do you want to know what I think? When I just saw you then, I thought about how much you went through just then in this battle. How you stayed in this castle and decided to fight for a good cause. To me, that just makes you more beautiful than you already are." The words came out so easily, and Harry realised what he was saying was true. Those scars did give her a different type of beauty. Those scars would one day tell a story, and Harry was sure that she would be getting a lot of respect from them.

Lavender looked up at Harry, her glistening eyes staring into his. Harry made sure not to look away, only look back. "Thank you, Harry." And she smiled. It was the most beautiful smile Harry had ever seen.

This war had taken its toll on so many people in the wizarding world, himself included, but Harry had a feeling that once the clean up was over and when everything had returned to normal, he would have something to live for. He would have Ron and Hermione and the rest of the Weasley's, and what he hoped would be a new found friendship, or maybe more, in Lavender Brown, the girl with the scars.


End file.
